Far Bank An ugly debate
Just about every angler wants to catch fit, healthy fish, right? So why do we increasingly seem to put the condition of our catch so far below the need to fill our nets? Dom Garnett says it’s time for a change...
THIS week I’m going to start with a brutally honest question: does it matter to you what condition your next catch is in? Are you bothered if the next bite is from a fish with a damaged mouth or missing scales?
While you’d hope anyone with half a brain answered “yes”, we often have a funny way of showing it. How else can you explain the growing number of fisheries where all too many of the stock, usually carp, look decidedly beaten up? I seldom like catching these fish. I like it even less when beginners catch them. Sure, you can sheepishly slip such a fish back quickly without much thought, but after a while it becomes hard not to ponder how on earth these creatures reached such a sorry state. Is it the result of sheer carelessness, or is it unfortunate or even inevitable that some fish will end up looking like Wayne Rooney after a fight with a wall?
The sobering truth is that a lot of careless, bad angling still goes on. Too many of us lack the basic skills, let alone adequate tackle, to fish sensibly and kindly. Crude gear is one bugbear... poor handling skills are another.
Meanwhile, just about every long-standing fishery owner I know has tales of dreadful rigs, discarded lines and the rest. And unfortunately, if a fishery is very popular, the best will in the world cannot fully mitigate human carelessness and stupidity.
Of course, it’s tempting to point the finger elsewhere on this issue but perhaps we are all culpable in some way? After all, a majority now want easy fishing on tap. We don’t want to walk further, let alone risk a blank, so we catch the same fish in the same limited bits of water time and again.
It this inevitable or can we demand better? In an era of 400lb match weights, the first step should be obvious – better fish welfare demands sensible stock levels and, yes, sometimes lower returns.
Our appetite to catch masses of fish every trip is at least partially to blame here and poses a question for the whole sport – do we truly value quality or are mere pounds and ounces all we care about? Is it really better to catch 100lb of ragged, sorry-looking fish, or just a handful of perfectly healthy specimens? Moreover, do we need the fish to be starving hungry, or did we actually take up this sport for a challenge?
Alarmingly, a bit like the litter problem, there must still be quite a sizeable minority of us who secretly, or even brazenly, don’t care. All the more reason for the rest of us to demand better standards in our angling, and venues that put fish welfare first.